Methadone Treatment Helps to Remove HCV Treatment Barriers

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive people who inject drugs (PWID) have greater access to regular physician care when they are enrolled in methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) programs than those who are not enrolled in these programs, according to the results of a recent study.

PWID who are infected with HCV often report barriers to accessing regular HCV treatment and care, and MMT programs have been shown to be associated with greater access to care among PWID, especially those with HIV. In their study, researchers aimed to examine whether enrollment in MMT programs was associated with greater access to physician care among PWID with HCV.

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The study included 1627 HCV-positive PWID between 2005 and 2015. The researchers used a marginal structural model including inverse probability of treatment weights to estimate the longitudinal relationship between MMT and HCV treatment.

Overall, 1357 patients reported access to regular physician care for HCV at least once during the study, and a marginal structural model estimated a 2.12 greater odds of having a regular HCV physician among PWID enrolled in MMT compared with those who are not enrolled.

“These findings demonstrate that opioid agonist treatment may be helpful in linking PWID to HCV care, and highlight the need to better engage people who use drugs in substance use care, when appropriate.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Ti L, Socias ME, Wood E et al. The impact of methadone maintenance therapy on access to regular physician care regarding hepatitis C among people who inject drugs [published online March 26, 2018]. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194162.

SEE ALSO: Hepatitis C Treatment Accessibility in the United States (Podcast)

Dr Mamta Jain, associate professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses hepatitis C virus treatment accessibility in the United States.